Owain Glyndŵr's Parliament House, Machynlleth

Owain Glyndŵr's Parliament House was traditionally the building where Owain Glyndŵr held a parliament after being crowned Prince of Wales in 1404. The origins of this structure are probably later. The existing building may be 15th century in origin, but has been extensively rebuilt particularly by David Davies of Llandinam who purchased it in 1906. It was opened on 20 February 1912 to provide a social centre for the town. The present rubble exterior is an interpretation of its C15 appearance probably by the architect Frank Shayler, who may also have designed the adjacent Glyndŵr Institute.LocationIn the centre of the town. Set into a continuous row of frontages midway along Heol Maengwyn, opposite the entrance to Plas Machynlleth and to the left of the Owain Glyndwr Institute.HistoryIn about 1813 the artist Edward Pugh visited Machynlleth and in 1816 he published a fine coloured lithograph of Parliament House. He provides the following description of the building Owen Glyndwr held his parliament here: and the house is still in being in which he and his adherents assembled. Its exterior appearance is barn like, and it is now used as a granary, etc, with the exception of one end, which is occupied as a miserable dwelling-house. Its interior exhibits great age: at the back is a flight of stone stairs in ruins, leading into the great room, in which there are carved ribs etc, in timberArchitecture of the Parliament HouseThe Parliament House, Machynlleth, is a substantial and remarkably complete hall-house sited parallel to the main road which approaches the town from the east. The hall-house has a four-unit plan: storeyed outer room of two bays, open passage (2 bays between partition trusses), open hall (3 bays with dais-end partition), and a storeyed inner-room of two bays. The carpentry is refined: purlins and ridge are tenoned into the trusses. The principal rafters of each truss are unusually shaped ('extruded') to receive the tenoned collar. In the hall the purlins are moulded with two tiers of windbraces (replaced), and the truses have shaped feet. The upper-end truss is set forward from the dais partition to form a shallow canopy. The site is traditionally associated with Owain Glyndwr's Parliaments of 1402 and 1404, and was restored and extended in 1911 as a library and institute commemorating Glynd'r. Tree-ring dating from timber in the building shows that it was felled in 1470 which is two generations later than the parliaments, but the origins of this substantial and important house may be considerably older.. The interior is now an exhibition centre.